SFIO report on Reebok fraud in two months: Moily

Bangalore: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) may submit within two months its report on the probe into the alleged Rs 870-crore fraud in Reebok India by two former top executives of the company, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily said today.

"We (Union government) have given four months for SFIO to investigate and give us a report on the matter. The agency is briskly probing the issue.

Corporate Affairs Minister V Moily. Image courtesy PIB

"May be within two months SFIO may come out with a report," he told reporters in Bangalore on the sidelines of a national conference on State of Corporate Fraud Control in India.

Last month, Adidas-owned Reebok India had filed an FIR alleging that its former managing director Subhinder Singh Prem and chief operating officer Vishnu Bhagat were involved in the Rs 870 crore fraud by indulging in criminal conspiracy and fraudulent practices over a period.

Both executives, however, had denied the allegations.

Asked about a US court absolving Union Carbide and its former chairman Warren Anderson of liability in the Bhopal gas Tragedy, Moily said he has nothing to say as it is a court verdict.

He said the matter is also being pursued in the country and India does not have Law of Torts in place.

"Once such laws are in place we will be in a position to effectively tackle that (Bhopal gas tragedy). We can then pinpoint who is responsible and wrong," he said.

The US court had ruled that it was Union Carbide India Ltd, and not its parent company Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) that was responsible for the generation and disposal of the waste that polluted drinking water, and the liability rests with the state government.